Entity: Earn Income

Source Core Rulebook pg. 235 ^4.0

You can use a skill—typically Crafting, Lore, or Performance—to earn money during downtime. You must be trained in the skill to do so. This takes time to set up, and your income depends on your proficiency rank and how lucrative a task you can find. Because this process requires a significant amount of time and involves tracking things outside the progress of adventures, it won’t come up in every campaign.

In some cases, the GM might let you use a different skill to Earn Income through specialized work. Usually, this is scholarly work, such as using Religion in a monastery to study old texts—but giving sermons at a church would still fall under Performance instead of Religion. You also might be able to use physical skills to make money, such as using Acrobatics to perform feats in a circus or Thievery to pick pockets. If you’re using a skill other than Crafting, Lore, or Performance, the DC tends to be significantly higher.

Earn Income Calculator

[Lore] Earn Income by using your knowledge to practice a trade.

[Performance] Earn Income by staging a performance.

Harsk rolls a 4 on his Tea Lore check for a result of 11. Poor Harsk has failed! He earns only 2 sp for his efforts and continues working for 3 more days, for a total of 8 sp.

At that point, the GM offers Harsk a choice: either he can finish out the week with the tea master and look for a new job, or he can lower his ambitions and serve in the tea house. Harsk, now more aware of his own capabilities, accepts the less prestigious job for now. He moves to his new job and attempts a new Tea Lore check against DC 16. Rolling a 19, he gets a result of 26—a critical success! He earns 5 sp per day (like a success at a 3rd-level task). The GM rules that demand will be high enough that Harsk can work there for the remainder of his downtime if he so chooses, a total of 26 days. Harsk accepts and earns a total of 138 sp (13 gp, 8 sp) that month.

Lem rolls an 11 on his Performance check for a result of 42. Success! The engagement lasts for a week, and at the end, the grateful celestials present Lem with a beautiful living diamond rose in constant bloom worth 1,400 gold pieces (200 gp per day for 7 days).

With 23 days of downtime left, Lem accepts a 14th-level task performing at a prestigious bardic college for members of a royal court. The GM secretly sets the DC at 32, and Lem critically succeeds, earning 28 gp per day for a total of 644 gp. Between the two performances, Lem has earned just over 2,000 gold pieces during his downtime—though he's not sure he'll ever sell that rose.

However, you might pause a task due to an adventure or event that wouldn't prevent you from returning to the old job later. The GM might decide that you can pick up where you left off, assuming the task hasn't been completed by others in your absence. Whether you roll a new skill check when you resume is also up to the GM. Generally speaking, if you had a good initial roll and want to keep it, you can, but if you had a bad initial roll, you can't try for a better one by pausing to do something else. If your statistics changed during the break—usually because you leveled up while adventuring—you can attempt a new check.